A c03s01
Info Absolution (Summary - List of stories) . The Innocent Dove << previous act | Act 1 of 4 | next act >> The Laughing Reaper << previous chapter | Chapter 3 of 39 '''| next chapter >> << previous scene | '''Scene 1 of 2 | next scene >> Summary * Location: *Participants: *Time: *Summary: Text Crown sighed tiredly as the wagon rolled up to the hospital at the edge of Ponyville, carefully climbing out the back of the vehicle and nodding to the driver. He adjusted his satchel at his side, then grimaced and rubbed at his stomach as a bolt of nausea passed through him, muttering: "Keep it together, Crown, keep it together..." The pale-looking unicorn shook himself out, then he breathed hard as he strode forwards, heading through the double doors and into the reception area. He strode towards the desk, and the nurse on the other side looked at him with concern, saying slowly: "The emergency room is on the other side of the building, sir..." "Do I really look that bad? No, no. My name is Straw Crown, I'm a coroner from Canterlot, here to inspect a body." Crown fumbled at his satchel, then finally pulled out his ID, putting it down on the desk. The nurse looked surprised, but the aging stallion only shook his head tiredly, saying wryly: "Three weeks from retirement. Last night I was called out in the middle of the night and I caught a nasty cold. Such is life." The nurse smiled awkwardly, checking his ID before she said hesitantly: "Sir, you look quite ill... are you sure that..." "No, no. It's nothing serious, my wife hasn't even caught it." He paused, then muttered: "Then again, she never gets sick. But... alright, the morgue is downstairs and to the... left?" "That's right." The nurse nodded, passing back his ID, and she hesitated before adding: "If you still feel ill after the exam, sir, we have a healer here today who might be able to help. She's done all sorts of wonderful things with many of our patients..." "I'll consider it, miss, thank you." Crown gave a bit of a smile, tucking his ID back in his satchel before he turned and headed past the reception booth towards a set of double doors, pushing through with a tired sigh and muttering: "Now even the young ones are taking pity on me. I knew I should have stayed home..." Crown made his way down the stairs, letting his hooves guide him: thankfully, he had been here more than a few times over his career, thanks to the proximity of Ponyville to Canterlot, and the route was fairly clearly marked, anyhow. It only took him a few minutes to reach the morgue, and he grimaced as he shoved through the heavy, almost-armored doors and into the small, metallic room. The bright fluorescent lights made his eyes ache as he stepped inside, and the tiles felt almost slippery: as the scent of disinfectant and lemons hit his nose, it made his stomach heave, the unicorn shivering once before he looked up at the two ponies dressed in green gowns and masks, one of them beginning to raise a hoof nervously before Crown asked grumpily: "So what have you found?" "Oh, you must be the coroner!" said one of the other ponies, looking relieved before they both glanced down at the body on the steel table in front of them: Crown shivered a bit at the sight of the elderly pony's body. It didn't look like there had been any foul play, but when someone died alone or in an unusual circumstance, it meant being put on the table... and for some reason, after all my years at this, I find natural death to be much more unnerving than a murdered corpse. "Sorry, we're just finishing up here..." "Take your time. I need to get changed." Crown muttered, glancing around before his eyes locked on a set of gowns hanging from hooks at the side of the room. He walked over, taking his satchel off to toss it aside before fitting himself into the medical clothing: gown, cap, gloves, and a mask because he was still coughing everywhere. He cursed under his breath behind the flimsy fabric, wheezing a little as he heard the attendants putting the body away into one of cells. For some reason, that had always bothered him a little, too... that they had neat little cubicles for the dead to put them in for storage, then take them out when it was time to examine them, and then cart them off to the science lab or back to grieving families... who would then usually put them in a coffin that was no less a prison than those cells were for how pretty some of them were, a claustrophobic casket that would be burned or buried in the cold, desolate earth... Crown shook himself out, feeling lightheaded before he hauled himself to his hooves and watched as the attendants carefully lifted the entire sliding metal rack out of another cabinet, balancing the dead body of the Clockwork Pony on top of it until they gently set it down on the exam table. The gaunt, pale-looking coroner grimaced as he made his way over to the corpse, looking up as one of the attendants said finally: "I've never seen this before. I mean, a dead Clockwork Pony... it makes me wonder how much of-" "You can tell me your wonders after, we have a job right now." Crown interrupted moodily, then he frowned as the attendants both shifted: even bleary and exhausted as he was, it was impossible to not notice how advanced the decomposition was. "What happened? Was there a temperature malfunction last night?" "No sir. I... don't know." one of the attendants said awkwardly, and Crown felt less than thrilled with this answer as he glowered at the two, who both winced. "Everything's been kept at low temperature, the body came in heavily decomposed last night, but... all the same, it's continued to deteriorate. There might be something festering in the internal organs, but..." "Let's check the liver temp. Somepony get me..." Crown grimaced, then he turned and coughed loudly several times, cursing under his breath as his whole body shivered. One of the attendants stepped towards him, but the coroner only shook his head out hurriedly, wheezing: "No, no... I... I'm fine. Go on, check the liver temperature." "Alright..." one of the attendants said finally, trading a look with the other pony before they both shrugged. One of them picked up the thermometer, checking the long, sharp needle at the end used to pierce down into the liver, and then he stepped forwards and carefully guided it down, pushing it firmly in as he muttered: "But sir, you really look-" There was a gurgle, and then the Clockwork Pony convulsed on the table, its body splitting open in a blast of noxious green fumes that quickly filled the morgue. The ponies all yelled and cursed before all three collapsed to the ground, leaving the corpse of the Clockwork Pony laying deflated and broken on the table as the green, misty poison filtered its way gradually upwards and out through the vents. The attendants both shivered and twitched, one of them drooling behind his mask, the other bleeding from a large wound in his scalp from the fall... and then, slowly, Crown twitched before he gargled loudly as his eyes rolled up in his head, foaming out of his jaws around the mask covering his muzzle. He convulsed once, then fell still, his eyes closing... before slowly, then opened again. They glowed with dark, unnatural light as the unicorn gurgled, yanking himself to his hooves like he was a puppet on a string, stumbling once before he flopped forwards to half-land over the exam table, crushing the brittle corpse of the Clockwork Pony and sending up another blast of poisonous gases as toxic organs popped like balloons. The unicorn fidgeted weakly, then gargled... and horribly, his eyes rolled in his head as his body first began to steam, then smolder visibly. And bit-by-bit, skin peeled and flesh melted, spreading over the table, becoming a thick, gelatinous goo that pried itself away from his skeleton like it had decided to set out on a twisted life of its own, spreading over the exam table with a horrible slurping sound as it pried up pieces of the Clockwork Pony's corpse, before the slime of flesh rippled and rolled itself off the other end of the exam table. It splattered down on the other side, and there was a sickening slurping sound as it rapidly spread itself over the prone bodies of the attendants, one of them managing a weak, gurgling cry before he was swallowed up. For a few minutes, there was only the sound of crunching and gargling... and then, slowly, the fleshy slime twisted back and forth before starting to rise slowly upwards as it gave a long, drawn-out sigh. It bubbled and twisted, gurgled and shifted as limbs spread out of it and it began to take on a distinct form: the head pushed up out of shoulders as the rippling flesh formed into a body and legs, a tail flicked behind it before it slammed malformed hooves down on the other side of the exam table... and grinned widely as sharp teeth formed it blackened jaws. It was mottled white and streaked with bolts of yellow, its eyes sunken deep in its sockets and made up of dozens of cells, like some hideous insect's. As its body finished shaping itself, it flexed and rippled like water before turning solid... but its hide looked slimy, and even if it was clearly trying to imitate the shape of a pony, its pointed, stiff ears, the ridge of spikes along its spine, its whip-like tail, its sheer hideousness was goblinoid and monstrous. "Ooh..." it whispered, and then it threw its head back and laughed before stomping its hooves against the table, dislodging the skeleton from the other side and knocking it loose. "How good it feels to be free! And oh, thank you, thank you so much, dear friend, for lending me that little boost to help wake me up... and all you fellas, too, couldn't have done it without you." It glanced over its shoulder with a laugh at the skeletons on the ground, then licked its teeth hungrily before leaping up onto the exam table, eyes glowing as it grinned down at the Clockwork Pony's corpse. "And to think, a few more days stuck festering in your dead tissue and I would have been gone forever... but as they say, fortune favors the foul, right? I got myself a nice, fleshy host I was able to rampage through, and oh, oh, oh, this world smells of sweet disease just ripe for the picking! Ooh, I'm gonna have me some fun!" It threw its head back and laughed, then spun around, eyes lighting on the cabinets filled with corpses as it licked its teeth hungrily, saying eagerly: "And look! An audience, kept all nice and fresh just for me! Well, you must be wondering just who I am, but don't worry, I'm plenty hungry and I know just how to introduce myself..." The creature rose one of its mottled limbs, then it flicked it easily forwards, and the foreleg split apart into several sticky tentacles that each collided with a cabinet door with sickening squelches. They squirmed for a moment, then the monster yanked backwards, and the doors were all yanked open by the movement as the tentacles snapped back as well, the monster singing in gravelly, sharp-pitched tones: .'' ''"Hey, nice to meet you all, I'm from the way out endless chaos sea, '' ''The garbage heap, they call it, but Ginnungagap was always paradise to me... I loved to fester in the rot, in the putrid dying piles, I gave Draconequus the sniffles but what I'm gonna do to you is worse by miles." .'' The monster grinned as the tentacles twisted back into the shape of a foreleg, before it leapt forwards, seizing into the wall of cabinets and reaching up to slowly, almost delicately pull a rack slowly out of one of the cabinets, revealing the pallid corpse within. "Ooh, delicious! ''. Oh sure, to chaos entities I was a nuisance, to demons just a minor ache, But to mortals I'm already lethal... and that's even before I've filled my take, I'm a destruction entity that ain't got a name of my own, But I'm sure I'll find a name for me as I strip you down to the bones..." .'' The creature leaned forwards, licking slowly up the corpses neck before it suddenly pounced upwards, tackling the corpse as it burst into a sick mire of slime, twisting and crunching around the corpse as the rack was knocked out of place... and when the slime leapt down a moment later, only a broken skeleton was left behind, as the monster reformed before it landed neatly on the ground with a wide grin as its eyes glowed, and it threw its head back to sing: ''. "Oh you mortals taste so sweet, you're so full of zest! I thought at first I must be cursed but now I realize I was blessed, Those stupid metal monsters had me sealed all away, But now I'm out and free to eat my fill and you can bet I'm here to stay..." .'' As it sang, it almost strutted around in a circle, turning to another open cell before shoving its head inside, and there was a horrendous ripping sound before it drew back as its body rippled, arching its back with a sigh and leaving little more than another skeleton behind. "So delicious! So nutritious! . ''Your fleshy bodies ain't got no defenses against my hungry jaws, You all might as well save me some time and climb right on into my maw! Come and join the feast, help me strengthen this poison in my veins. Make me stronger, make me better, give up your genes and flus and pains! .'' ''I'm disease, alive! I'm poison come to life! I'm a toxic vibe! I'm all your pain and strife! I'm your worst vice! I'm your nicotine addiction! I'm festering lice! I'm your terminal condition!" .'' The creature laughed as it drew back from another cell, then its eyes blazed as hopped to the side, tearing two more cell doors open and shoving its forelegs into the cabinets, a sick slurping sound filling the air... but when the creature leapt back, it was followed by two corpses, one a bloated, half-rotten corpse of a drowned Nibelung, the other a pony with the clear Y-stitching of an autopsy over its form. And the monster laughed as it spun around, leaping up onto the exam table and landing on back legs to begin a macabre tapdance, as the puppeted corpses behind it followed its rhythm. ''"I'm Cancer! Running through your veins! Infecting everything so you'll never be the same! I'm Cancer! I'm already in your brain! I'm rotting you from inside out, without no shame! .'' ''I'm Cancer! I'm gonna rot you to bits, 'Cause that's just the way, honey, that I get my kicks! .'' ''Oh, sha-be-da-be-da-be-da-be-do-bop! Oh, sha-be-da-be-da-be-do-do-wop! Hey, sha-be-da-be-da-be-do-da-da! Yeah, sha-be-da-be-da-be-do-wa-ah!" The monster easily backflipped off the table, both corpses stepping soullessly forwards to catch it, and the beast burst apart into thick, hideous slime that rippled over the two bodies, then tore free, leaving only skeletons behind as it reformed. It grinned over its shoulder at the skeletons as they fell to the ground, the monster still humming to itself before it turned its head... and its eyes alit on a shelf on the other side of the room, whispering: "Oh, what have we here? Yes, the corpses were good to start... I got myself a nice, yummy start to the day... but you, you, you..." It strode quickly over to the shelving, licking its lips eagerly as it gazed back and forth over the jars of samples and chemicals, then it grinned widely and plucked one off the shelf, yanking it open and inhaling deeply. Then it shivered in bliss, whispering: "Fungus, where have you been all my life!" It tilted the jar back, gobbling down the sample, then it tossed it aside and quickly began to yank down the other chemicals. Most of these it gobbled hungrily down, others it poured over itself, laughing: all it had to do was make contact with the disease, after all, for its cells to absorb the new material and take what it could. For it to rip information out of the disease, like it had gobbled down all the genetic data from the corpses as it had ripped their flesh from their bones to amplify and feed itself. The monster paused as it picked up a large tank of some kind, tilting this back and forth curiously before it twisted the handle... and a hissing filled the air before the creature stuck its head in front of the faintly-visible spray of gas, sniffing loudly before its eyes widened in delight. "Nitrogen!" The monster crowed, then greedily shoved the tank into its jaws, guzzling down the chemical: anything and everything could be stored in its cells, could be used to further adapt itself, and the destruction entity adored volatile chemicals almost as much as it loved diseases and poisons. There was a loud hammering at the door, and the monster frowned before it turned around, the tank still halfway stuck in its jaws before a pony in a security uniform shoved through the doors, beginning: "I heard a disturbance, and... oh my god, what happened? What... the... oh no, a demon!" The monster's eyes widened, then it turned and spat the tank out as the security pony staggered backwards in terror as the creature raged in an incensed voice: "Demon! How dare you! You ever see a filthy demon that could do this?" Then the beast rushed forwards, and the guard didn't even have time to react before the monster burst into streams of goo, smashing into the pony, constricting his body and ripping into his jaws, osmosing through his pores, making him scream in horror and agony as his eyes rolled wildly in his head before he collapsed to the ground, a faint, sticky sheen still visible on his body and splatters of sticky goo dotting the floor around him. For a few moments, there was silence... and then the security guard opened his eyes, and they glowed with ill light as he grinned widely, licking his lips hungrily. "Oh, yes, yes, yes, this'll do just fine... I can puppet your body like a... well, a puppet on a string!" The creature laughed from the stallion's jaws, then he easily stood up... before grunting and touching his stomach once, muttering: "Immune system is trying to reject me, though, but that ain't no threat... I need me some more diseases. And while I'm here, I think I'll strip your living tissue, start learning more about how you ponies tick... old dude was a fun ride, but that's about all he was, too, just a ride. A hopalong. A stagecoach. Helps that I made my way in through his eyes, though... got myself a one-way ticket right into his brain, and what a delight the brain is... oh, yes, here's yours now! And watch, boys and girls, as Mister Cancer throws a switch and..." The security guard twitched, gargled, then shivered... and then the earth pony's head shook before Cancer sighed in relief from his jaws. "There we go! That's what I'm talkin' about... a nice little flick of a switch and your pain receptors turn off and I don't have to worry about getting all jacked up while your body basically kills itself tryin' to get rid of me. Cool how that works, ain't it? And if you haven't gotten it already, hi, I'm Cancer. I'm gonna kill you. I'm gonna kill your whole race, as a matter of fact. Hell, let's not be modest here, I got plans to destroy your whole world! Why? 'Cause that's just what I do, spread my disease, sprinkle my poisons, and make stuff dead. It's all for the greater good though, boy, don't you worry none about that." Cancer snickered to himself before he began to almost skip cheerfully forwards, licking his lips hungrily as he whispered: "Now, before you get too sick to be noticeable, we're gonna make our way upstairs. I spent all night wracking that silly old dude's brain, and just by a few glimpses into your memory banks I'm seeing that we're in some place called a hospital, where you thoughtful little ponies have been so nice as to stick all your dead and dying and diseased for me! Gosh, you rolled out the welcome mat and you didn't even know I was coming, I am just, I am just so touched! And I didn't even bring you guys anything!" Cancer laughed, then he suddenly halted, foaming at the jaws as the earth pony's eyes glowed bright red and he rasped: "Except death." Then Cancer shivered before shaking his head violently and looking up with a bright grin again, wiping foam away from his jaws and flicking his tongue at the air. "Whoops. Sorry about that, happens now and again. Ain't nothing serious, don't worry about it. I guess we're all a little quirky, right?" He laughed, then pranced his way down the hall to the stairs, hurrying up them and still grinning brightly even as he made his way past an attendant. The pony looked at him oddly ,and for a moment, Cancer considered attacking her... but then he realized he was still running up flights of stairs and she was long gone, and he grumbled under his breath as he said grumpily: "Oh well, who cares, just one little bitsy itsy pony-wony. There's plenty of time to get 'em all later." Cancer nodded vehemently to himself as he made his way onto the third floor, shoving through and looking back and forth as he licked his lips slowly, ignoring the looks a few ponies gave him before he hurried down the corridors, breathing a little harder. He could already feel the pony's body starting to break down: Cancer, after all, was spread through all of the pony's veins like he was wearing a far-too-tight costume, and his presence inside the pony's body was already creating friction and energy and nasty chemical reactions... He had shut down the most visible immune responses, but all the same, fever was boiling and rampaging... and soon the pony would literally start to melt. Cancer knew this on instinct, just as he knew on instinct that his former host hadn't started really suffering his effects until the end because Cancer had been weak, and tiny, and nothing more than a batch of cells that had multiplied exponentially in his host, using his flesh and body as a medium to begin rebuilding and reconstructing himself after countless years kept in a cage, used as nothing more than fuel for some metal monster's weapons and kept subdued by a power convertor... But all the same, oh, he had leeched his way into the metal creature through its own weapons... and even though he'd been unable to do more than simply kill the creature, his revenge had delightful consequences. Some other greedy creature had shattered his glass prison, removed the power convertor, and run away with it, not knowing just how precious that crystalline engine was... and then Cancer had hid in the dead body, and waited. Dead cells, he couldn't do more than puppet for short periods of time: he could rip their genetic data from them, but that would also destroy them. Likewise, the old pony's living body had been resisting him, right up until the body had been shocked from the toxins released from the corpse he'd been about to examine... and then, then Cancer had seized his opportunity. And now here he was: manipulating a mortal's body, bent on getting his claws on more diseases. Because the more diseases, the more chemicals, the more poisons he absorbed, the stronger he'd become. Just like the dead and sickness-riddled flesh he'd absorbed in the morgue had already made him powerful enough to do this... imagine how fast he would grow if he was able to find this so called 'infectious disease center' in the hospital! Cancer licked his lips hungrily at the thought: he already knew he was going to like it here. The mortals were easy prey for him as it was, and after he had time to evolve and grow further, he knew they 'd become even easier. Oh, they had vaccines, and antidotes, and pretty little pills... but he was willing to bet none of them had ever dealt with a disease like him before. A disease that could grow and evolve as it wished, that could do oh so much more than just fester in a body... He grinned hungrily as he pushed his way through a set of double doors, then his eyes finally alit on a door at the end of an intersection, hurrying forwards as he growled in delight. He could all-but-smell the illness, the disease, the festering toxins on the other side of that door, as he panted roughly in and out... then he winced and skidded to a halt when a pony stepped in his way with a frown, glaring at him. A white coat hung around his lanky body, and Cancer identified this as a creature who would stupidly think of himself as his superior enemy, when he was only, in fact, easy prey: a doctor. "What are you doing here? Security patrols are restricted to the first floor halls unless otherwise ordered." Cancer sniffed, then he leaned forwards and whined: "I'm sick." A pause, then he grinned as the doctor scowled, the possessed earth pony leaning forwards and belching out a cloud of green gases into the doctor's surprised face. "See?" The doctor coughed once... then he trembled, looking stupefied before collapsing in a heap. He twitched weakly on the ground a few times, and Cancer peered down at him for a few moments, kicked him hard once in the head to make sure he was unconscious – and kicked him again out of pure spite – and then he rose his head and called loudly: "Hey, uh. We got a sick doctor here or something, I dunno. I didn't do it." Within moments, there was the sound of hooves, and Cancer simply stepped back and whistled a little as two nurses hurried over and looked down at the doctor. They both cursed, then one shouted something as the other began to check him over, and Cancer quickly slipped away, almost bouncing down the hall as he hummed under his breath before he hit the door at the end of the intersection and hopped on through. He grinned widely to himself, licking his lips in delight as he emerged into a large, square room beyond that was filled with shelves of samples in jars, bottles, and vials, all of them neatly labeled and sorted. "Oh... sweet merciful delights. We gonna have us some fun tonight!" Cancer immediately went to work, twining back and forth through the shelves as he picked up containers and tore them open or shattered them, inhaling airborne diseases, guzzling down liquids, giggling as he spilled chemicals and biopsy samples and everything else that was stored in here. For him it was a wonderland, a paradise, a slice of heaven... and Cancer giggled again, the body he was in splattered with stains and ugly, spreading bruises and burns, sweat rolling down the earth pony's frame as he almost boiled... "But oh, it don't matter none now, not at all, not at all... I've gathered up all these lost and lonely little samples now, and we're gonna have one big party inside me!" He giggled again to himself, twitching a bit as he licked his lips eagerly and picked up one last sample jar, overturning it above his head and drinking down the contents hungrily as the sick-smelling liquid spilled down his jaws and over his face... and then his eyes widened as there was a hammering at the door, a voice from beyond shouting: "Who's in there? Come out immediately!" "Uh oh. Gotta bust a move while I percolate." Cancer muttered, looking hurriedly back and forth before he threw the empty jar away and hurried down the row of shelves, skidding around an intersection as his eyes locked on a window. "Bingo-was-his-name-o!" He ran towards this, bringing the earth pony's hooves up and smashing it out, sending a hail of glass raining down the side of the building... before he snarled in frustration at the sight of the steel bars beyond. And behind him, he could hear the door thrown open... but thankfully it was followed by yells and shouts as whoever was trying to stop him stumbled in the broken glass and puddles of chemical. Cancer giggled to himself at this thought, licking his lips... and then his eyes widened before he looked at the bars, made a horrible, disgusting gagging noise, then leaned forwards and vomited out a stream of acid that rapidly ate away at the metal caging. Cancer grinned over his shoulder as he heard the sound of hooves approaching, then he simply dove forwards into the smoking, smoldering bars and crashed through them, laughing as chunks of warped and broken metal flew in all directions and he plummeted down to the sloped ground far below with a sickening splat. There was a loud crunch as he bounced once, a limb twisting awkwardly, body rolling down the slope at the side of the hospital before he finally came to a halt in the field, gurgling once as he twitched in a broken pile of blood and tangled limbs. Then Cancer slowly rose the earth pony's head, his eyes glowing as he giggled and whispered: "Oh... clotting enzymes, and adrenaline, and... endorphins, oh my! And... ooh, delicious bone marrow leaking out, and all those other juices mixing together with everything else... it's like getting to the center of the chewy candy!" The monster laughed as it shoved itself up to its hooves, gurgling once before it staggered back and forth... then grinned widely, licking its split lips slowly as sweat poured down the earth pony's body. Its hide was starting to char and peel in places, as fever worsened into what would eventually be akin to spontaneous combustion, but for now the monster could still use this body. Even broken and mangled as it was, it was only a casing, a puppet, a toy to the beast. Slowly, Cancer dragged itself away from the hospital, breathing heavily through the foaming jaws of the earth pony, leaving a trail of blood and pus behind it as clouds rolled ominously through the skies above and a sharp, cold wind blew. It darkened the day as shouts and panic went through the hospital, allowing Cancer to make good on his escape as doctors and staff were instead forced to concentrate on quarantining the storage room. The monster made his way slowly in the direction from which he could sense more mortals, and more diseases, and garbage and pollution and everything else it so loved: he moved towards Ponyville, grinning widely as he felt the chemicals and diseases inside him bubbling and boiling and merging into his alien cell structure. As it reached a bridge over a low, burbling creek, however, there was a loud shout from behind it, and Cancer turned, frowning in distaste as a pony dressed in some kind of officer's uniform approached, the unicorn with his head lowered and his horn glowing as he snapped: "Stop right there, whatever you are!" Cancer grinned widely, looking slowly back and forth before he said easily: "Oh, little old me? Now come on, fella, don't you see I ain't doin' so hot? I'm all coughing and choking and wheezing and squeezing. Come on, you can let me go, officer, can't you just this one little time?" "Get down on the ground, now! Surrender peacefully!" the soldier barked, and Cancer glared at him before the unicorn leaned forwards, horn glowing brighter. "Don't make me use force!" "You really gonna kill this meatsack?" Cancer reached up and touched his own chest, and then he grinned through the earth pony's jaws, giggling as he leaned forwards and his eyes glowed hellish red, making the chemicals inside his body boil. "Here, lemme save you the trouble." Cancer threw his head back and his forelegs out as his body bloated and bulged, the soldier staring for a moment before the earth pony's body simply exploded in a terrible blast of force and gore and poisonous mist, knocking the soldier sprawling with a choked-off scream. In a matter of moments, the unicorn was dead, boils and bruising spreading rapidly over his pale features, twitching weakly as foam spilled out of his jaws. There was little left of the earth pony, apart from a few splatters, and the bridge and surrounding area had been covered with corrosive, smelly white and red goo... but slowly, this began to tremble and shift, making a sick slurping as the slime quickly merged itself into one large puddle that swelled upwards and shaped itself back into Cancer's goblinoid, grinning semi-equine form. He rasped slowly in and out, then hugged himself with a cackle, looking mockingly down at the dead unicorn as he said cheerfully: "See, ain't I such a nice guy? Damn that nitrogen has a kick, though! But ooh, I'd best be hoppin' along now, find myself a nice little place to hole up and not lose any more of these sweet juices than I already have so I can..." He twitched violently, eyes glowing red, fangs baring as he rasped: "Infect, destroy, kill, kill, kill..." Cancer shivered, then shook his head out and giggled insanely, his entire body twitching before he bounced happily past the bridge and down into the creek, splashing into the water and beginning to wade his way up the river as he half-sang: "Gotta spread my disease, after all... that's how I grow, that's how I multiply, that's just what I do, honey-bunch. Gonna make a real name for myself here, a name they're all gonna know before they all die... but oh baby, they're all gonna die, they're all gonna die, 'cause I'm gonna make myself a nice little home here..." The creature licked his lips slowly, then he approached a culvert and leaned forwards, inhaling deeply and releasing a sigh of delight as he stood up on his hind legs, grasping either side of the rusting steel tunnel with his front hooves. "Ooh, manna from heaven... what blissful paradise! Smells like sewage, and rats, and vermin and... yeah, yeah, I'm gonna like it here just fine..." Cancer grinned widely, slithering into the culvert, breathing hungrily before its physical form began to melt slowly down into a puddle of slime that slipped greedily down into the ankle-deep water to feast on the bacteria and disease within. Yes, this place... this place was going to do just fine. Category:Transcript Category:Story